Actor eyes a new role
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Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, now an actor starring in NBC’s Law & Order, said this week he is “going to leave the door open” to a run for the Republican presidential nomination. Thompson, 64, who served in the Senate from 1994 to 2002, has supported President Bush’s Iraq war policies, and served on the board of the legal defense fund for former vice presidential aide Scooter Libby. Thompson first gained prominence as chief minority counsel of the Senate Watergate committee. It was under his questioning that former Nixon aide Fred Butterfield revealed the existence of a secret taping system in the Oval Office.
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